Quests and Rituals of Renewal (Excerpt)

Any true quest, any true ritual, if you are lucky, will bring you into contact with silence and with Self. The beauty of turning to wilderness as teacher and healer is that wilderness is entirely impartial to our human affairs and struggles. It just is: disinterested, unattached and, yet, totally in relationship to itself and to us. Nature presents us with a stillness and a silence that is not the absence of movement or the absence of noise, but active stillness and active silence.

The opportunity offered in the sanctuary of nature is one of turning inward toward the source, of seeing beyond surface appearances. This plunge is a plunge into the peace and joy of being. Nothing else is needed. Removing ourselves from the busyness of our lives and meeting the depths of presence and beingness found in the outdoors is a gift we can give ourselves at any time. . . .